Feb. 24, 2018, 7:10 p.m.

In a rare interview, President Trump called into Fox News on Saturday night to rail against Democrats, repeat his suggestion that teachers should be armed to prevent school shootings and to compliment his interviewer on her ratings.

"I did look at your ratings over the last couple of weeks, and you're doing fantastically,” the president told Jeanine Pirro, a Fox News host, as their friendly interview drew to a close.

Trump spent more time blasting his political opponents, accusing Democrats of trying to protect the violent gang MS-13 and abandoning a program that had protected some immigrants from deportation. (In fact, Trump last year announced he was phasing out the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, leaving the next steps up to the Republican-controlled Congress.)

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Feb. 24, 2018, 1:30 p.m.

The House Intelligence Committee on Saturday released a Democratic memo countering a harsh Republican critique of the FBI and Justice Department, escalating the partisan battle over government surveillance of a former Trump campaign advisor that began three weeks before the 2016 election.

Feb. 23, 2018, 12:57 p.m.

Apparently as reward for their support of the United States during a United Nations vote on Jerusalem, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley will visit Honduras and Guatemala next week, her office announced Friday.

The trip to two of the region’s most troubled countries follows a lopsided U.N. General Assembly vote in December to condemn President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the U.S. Embassy to the disputed city.

“We are grateful to these two countries for standing with us at the U.N. when many others did not,” a spokesman for the U.S. mission at the U.N. said Friday. “At the same time, we have many other shared interests to discuss, including narcotics, gangs, migration, and the crisis in Venezuela.”

Feb. 23, 2018, 12:49 p.m.

President Trump said his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, will decide if Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, keeps a security clearance that gives him access to highly classified government secrets.

“General Kelly will make that call,” Trump told reporters on Friday during a press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. “I won’t make that call.”

Kelly had set Friday as a deadline, after which White House aides still without a permanent security clearance would require a waiver to continue to see classified information and attend classified meetings. Losing clearance would likely greatly inhibit Kushner’s work, given his portfolio as a senior advisor on policy toward China, Mexico and the Middle East, among other topics.

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Feb. 23, 2018, 11:01 a.m.

Richard W. Gates III, who helped lead President Trump’s campaign after making millions of dollars advising Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin government, is expected to plead guilty Friday, the latest former Trump aide to admit wrongdoing in the sprawling Russia investigation.

Feb. 23, 2018, 7:32 a.m.

Interesting to hear Trump argue for arming teachers but then criticize the FL school resource officer: "He certainly did a poor job... somebody was outside, they are trained, they didn't react properly under pressure or they were a coward." (via CBS) pic.twitter.com/5iVCIgTFBW

Students from Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hug survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting before heading to a rally. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)

President Trump said Friday that the Florida sheriff’s deputy who failed to intervene in last week’s school shooting may have been a “coward,” a strong rebuke from a president toward a local law officer.

“He trained his whole life,” Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to Scot Peterson, who resigned after Broward County authorities determined he’d stood outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for four minutes during the shooting that left 17 people dead.

“When it came time to get in there and do something, he didn’t have the courage or something happened,” Trump added. “But he certainly did a poor job. There’s no question about that.”

Feb. 23, 2018, 7:08 a.m.

President Trump is announcing what he calls the “largest ever” sanctions against North Korea.

In a speech to conservative activists Friday morning, Trump will describe sanctions to target 56 vessels, shipping companies and trade businesses the administration thinks are helping North Korea evade existing sanctions, according to excerpts of the speech released ahead of time.

The administration is hoping the sanctions will halt North Korea’s nuclear program, a strategy that so far has failed to thwart the progress of supreme leader Kim Jong Un’s regime toward developing a nuclear-armed ballistic missile capable of hitting U.S. territory.

Feb. 23, 2018, 6:51 a.m.

Feb. 22, 2018, 3:43 p.m.

Tourists ride the Staten Island Ferry to get a view of the Statue of Liberty in New York City. (Mark Lennihan / Associated Press)

America is no longer a “nation of immigrants,” at least in the mission statement of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Director L. Francis Cissna announced the rewrite of the statement Thursday, scrapping the more immigration-friendly language that said the agency “secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers.”

The new version has a distinctly tougher tone, stressing the agency’s role as “protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.”